Movie Review: Thor: Ragnarok

19th October, 2017. Posted by Mr D'Lambert

The year was 2010 and Iron Man 2s post-credit sequence revealed to us all, which hero was next in the line for a cinematic outing…Oh look, it’s Mjölnir; Thor’s hammer! And 7 years later, after 1 lacklustre sequel (The Dark World) and 2 outings with The Avengers team, Thor is back in his best adventure yet – yes, you read right, I said best.

Helmed by a director I’d never heard of before, Taika Waititi, it turns out, didn’t just bring us this new fantastic Marvel vision, but also voiced the muched loved, funny rock warrior, that you’ll get to know – Korg. And though I heard whispers of fairly good guesses in the cinema, as to who dubbed him, no it wasn’t Sharlto Copely (The A-Team, District 9) or Rhys Darby (Yes Man, Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle) it was the director Taika himself!

Taking a page from the Guardians Of The Galaxy playbook, Thor has now become a very colourful and very funny affair and when I say funny, I mean in the Marvel league table, it is at the top. But take heed, overly serious comic book fans, in no way is the Thor brand diminished. In fact, since his solo adventures haven’t completely hit the nail on the head (see what I did there…nail…hammer…never mind) a fresh and brave direction for the big screen was much in need.

Thor: Ragnarok was so enjoyable, that there isn’t much I can say. I can’t pick it apart citing terrible moments, as the action, photography, script and story are all fine. The opening sequence especially, really showed you the fighting prowess of Thor and how he really uses Mjölnir as not just an aggressive hitting tool, but a tactical weapon too. Speaking of the opening scene, prepare yourself for probably one of the best Marvel fight scenes to date, so good that it actually betters some of the final fight scenes from previous movies in the Universe.

One of the things that really stands out in this outing of Thor is that Chris Hemsworth can actually act. Up until now through all of his Thor appearances he hasn’t done much more than be smouldering, half naked, swinging his hammer (not a metaphor for the previous point) and shouting here and there whilst the rest of the cast support him. But this time around he really plays the lead role and shows a serious amount of range that we haven’t seen from him as Thor.

The casting is spot on and the progression of Thor’s relationships are interesting. How he now relates to Loki is slightly melancholic, endearing, but not corny. His favourite sparring partner, Hulk is on hand to smash, but the writers have also managed to show, that he is more than some ultimate beast of destruction. Cate Blanchett turns up to be superbad, once again excelling at playing a super powerful being. Karl Urban plays an unfulfilled interesting geezer, Tessa Thompson a fed up Valkyrie, Idris Elba a renegade protector and the rest…well you’ll just have go and see for yourself and be nicely surprised.

Remember to sit through the credits so you too can debate over what’s to come next.

UK Release: October 27th (Selected Previews October 24th)

US Release: November 3rd.

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